CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
Background to the Study
Education is a means of empowerment to an individual and the society. Also, it is a solid tool for developing human capacity needed for a sustainable national development. Tertiary education, which comprises universities, polytechnics, colleges of education and mono technics, has been recognised as a means of developing human capacity required for sustainable national growth and development. Categorically, universities are saddled with the responsibility of developing high-level manpower within the setting of the requirements of the nation. As a result of the globalisation, data innovation and revolution in the present-day learning-based economy, so much prospect has been placed on universities in creating, outfitting and transmitting information for sustainable development and improved standard of living. Consequently, the university plays a critical part in engendering the human capacities with respect to authority, administration and technical expertise.
All over the world, investment in the university education is a critical component of national development eff-ort. Countries today depend to a great extent on information, thoughts and skills which are created in universities (OECD, 1996; World Bank, 1997). As a country’s learning industry, the university increases the productive capacity of the labour force. In the developed countries, for example, university’s researchers are able to monitor ecumenical technological trends, survey their importance to national needs and help with building up the national innovative capacity with respect to economic development.
Going by this trend, there has been high demand for the university education in Nigeria since independence in order to increase the supply of manpower in the labour market. Following the recommendation of the Ashby Commission of 1959 that new universities should be established in the then three Regions and Lagos, the then Capital Territory, University of Nigeria, Nsukka, Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria and the University of Ibadan together with University of Lagos, Lagos, were established as the first generation of universities in Nigeria. It is imperative to note that since then the University network in Nigeria has developed significantly. The quantity of universities has expanded from five in 1962 to one hundred and twenty-eight (128) in 2013, comprising 40 Federal, 38 State and 50 private universities (Okojie, 2013) and a total number of 151 in 2016 (National University Commission, 2016).
The goals of the university education, as stated by the Federal Republic of Nigeria (2014), are to:
i. contribute to national development through high level manpower training;
ii. provide accessible and affordable quality learning opportunities in formal and informal education in response to the needs and interests of all Nigerians;
iii. provide high quality career counselling and lifelong learning programmes that prepare students with the knowledge and skills for self-reliance and the world of work;
iv. reduce skill shortages through the production of skilled manpower relevant to the needs of the labour market;
v. promote and encourage scholarship, entrepreneurship and community service;
vi. forge and cement national unity and
vii. promote national and international understanding and interaction. (p. 39).
Regardless of these noble goals, Sofoluwe and Etejere (2011) noticed that over the years the tertiary scholastic level has attracted underwhelming reactions, having failed to achieve the aim of providing the kind of education that would solve the problems of the country as a developing nation; such problems as abject poverty, corruption, unemployment and mismanagement of resources. This is traceable to the difficulties confronting the university education in Nigeria which are poor infrastructure, political influence, incessant industrial actions and under-funding. The issue of underfunding of education is so endemic that it has now encompassed series of other problems which include shortage of human and material assets (Durosaro, 2000). Other challenges are cultism, examination malpractices and poor quality of graduates.
Judging by this, it is evident that universities in Nigeria are yet to be well-equipped to carry out these responsibilities efficaciously due to human capacity deficiencies. Okojie (2013) lamented that the Nigerian university system keeps on falling appallingly behind required standards in the contemporary world. Engineering workshops, which are betokened to train 21st Century engineers, are provided with equipment and gadgets that were introduced in the 1960s. Library books and journals dated not later than the 1980s. Okojie further noted that hostel rooms meant for four students in the 1970s, were in 2012, occupied by 12 students each having a “cooker corner†and using kerosene stove; with the horrifying low level of research facilities in the universities, the future is apparently bleak for Nigerian education.
This circumstance pervades mostly developing nations of the world, particularly African nations. Pauw, Ooshizen and Westhuizen (2007) discovered in South Africa that many graduates lack soft skills, workplace readiness and experience. Boateng and Ofori-Sarpong (2002) also noted that in Ghana employers of labour referred to recent graduates as those who lack basic skills to complete simple routine assignments and this gave the impression that certification is a mere formality rather than an indication of achievement. The situation is not different in Nigeria as employers of labour believed that graduates are poorly trained and unproductive on the job. Nigerian graduates have been described variously as half-baked, ill-equipped, ill-trained, of poor quality, of a low standard and unemployable (Obayan, 2002). This clarified why the university education in Nigeria has not been able to consummate its mandate of endangering the high-level manpower needed for the national development in the required quality that can fit and compete favourably both at national and international labour markets.
